Ohio lawmakers’ final compromise budget plan includes a small-business income-tax cut and a increase on cigarettes, a legislative conference committee revealed late Wednesday night.
The committee’s budget plan would also impose new restrictions on abortion clinics, allow later bar hours during the Republican National Convention, provide pay raises for local officials, block journalists’ access to concealed-handgun records, and remove a proposed state tax on Social Security benefits.
Under the plan, business owners would receive a 75-percent income-tax reduction on their first $250,000 of net income for the 2015 tax year. In tax year 2016, they would pay no state income tax at all on their first $250,000 of income.
Any income beyond $250,000 would be taxed at a flat rate of 3 percent under the budget plan.
The cigarette tax hike was set at 35 cents per pack. The Senate version had a 40-cent increase, while Gov. John Kasich had proposed a $1 per pack increase.
The budget plan is expected to clear a final vote in the Ohio House and Senate before heading to Kasich’s desk.
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